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Sunday, June 21, 2015

The Genetic Strand

The Genetic Strand, a book that I found on a bargain table, caught my eye because the author's surname was Ball. On examination I discovered that its subtitle was "Exploring a a family history through DNA".
I hoped that this book might enlighten this old girl who is at the bottom of the class where DNA is concerned. Published in 2007 this book was published before the emergence of genealogy focussed DNA companies like FamilyTreee DNA, 23andMe and Ancestry DNA so Ball had to turn to the companies that were available at the time.

Although I didn't learn much to advance my knowledge of DNA (although the author gave several detailed explanations) I thoroughly enjoyed the book because I learnt a lot about the history of DNA testing. I was carried along with the author as he tried to sort out a family mystery (I love reading mysteries) about a collection of family hair samples that had been hidden in a desk since the American Civil War. Ball's prose was excellent; his writing had a captivating turn of phrase and touches of humour.